JILL Osterhus from Munster, Indiana may just be the Sandals Foundation’s youngest and most earnest donor. The 12-year-old’s generous spirit of volunteerism has yielded a cache of school supplies for Jamaican children which greatly aids in the foundation’s ongoing literacy drive.

For many children, a visit to a tropical paradise signals the perfect getaway from months of school and a time to simply chill out and do nothing but have fun. Jill, however, isn’t like the average child. Amidst all the fun and frolic of her 2008 family vacation to Beaches Resorts in Negril, the eighth grader from the Wilbur Wright Middle School made a commitment to assist Jamaican children with books and school supplies. And, through the Sandals Foundation, this has become a superbly successful reality.

Jill’s book drive was born from a casual conversation with beach hairstylists Janet and Angela. During one hair braiding session with younger sister Amanda, Jill learnt that the ladies’ children needed school supplies and her parents thought it would be good to donate a few of their daughters’ old textbooks during their next vacation.

Jill, however, wanted to do more.

“I thought there must be many more children in need,” says Jill, and she began crafting a plan to collect as many supplies as possible.

“I knew I had to take action, so in my seventh grade year I wrote letters to the principal and social worker of my school asking for used textbooks and a drop-box for school supplies.”

With her passion to help growing every day, the enterprising young girl further arranged for bins to be placed where students could give away any unused school materials and also went to Amanda’s school — Eads Elementary — where she received dictionaries, text books, and Times for Kids magazines.

At the end of her project, Jill collected more than 100 gently used and new stationery and supplies including social studies books, dictionaries, language arts texts, fictional novels, notebook paper, pencils, pens and crayons, totalling more than 500lbs or 14 boxes of items geared towards kindergarteners to seventh graders.

Following this successful drive, Jill faced the challenge of getting all these items back to Jamaica for donation. That’s when her grandfather found out about the Sandals Foundation.

“I emailed the senior co-ordinator of Sandals Foundation, Heidi Clarke and Sheryl McGaw-Douse, who gave me the opportunity to help children in need. They said that if I could get the books and supplies to their shipping company, Hospitality Purveyors Incorporated, in Miami, Florida, they would be able to ship them to Jamaica and take care of customs free of cost,” says Jill.

Clarke describes Jill’s contribution as exceptional.

“She is quite a selfless girl who did all in her power to provide supplies to aid in the educational development of our children in Jamaica. She recognised a need and has done an exceptional job in creating a solution.

“One of the Sandals Foundation’s major focus areas is education and, like Jill, the Foundation is dedicated to ensuring our children are fully literate and have the supplies required to succeed during their school careers. The Foundation is really proud to work alongside Jill to make this a reality.”

Jill herself is pleased with the contributions she has made. “I am really excited that the books I collected will be in the hands of the children who need them,” she states.

But, this is just the beginning for the young girl who has found joy in giving back.

“My project was finally accomplished, however, I am not done. My family and I will be returning to Jamaica next January and I have put together school supply pouches to hand deliver to a school myself. I am really looking forward to that!”